5/15/2009 @ 11:10AM

Curmudgeon's Countdown

Death, says Len Buckeridge, is little more than a nuisance that threatens to get in the way of his business expansion plans. That is why the 73-year-old owner of one of Australia’s biggest construction and building materials companies is busier than ever despite debilitating cancer surgery. “I reckon I’ve got 12 months to go,” he said in an interview conducted at the glass-topped dining table in his Perth home.

After an unsparing description of what the surgeons took out of his insides, the perpetually blunt Buckeridge mercifully moves on to a scrapbook of new projects, including construction of a $200 million private port to handle bulk shipments by his Buckeridge Group of Companies (BGC), concrete plants and a head office for his home building division. “I’ve got five projects I want to start this year,” he says. “And if I’m still going after that, I’ve got another list.”

Underscoring the determination of the man, who has shed 65 pounds over the past year as a result of his medical problems (his recent colon removal was preceded by bladder cancer), are a series of telephone calls taken during the interview from project managers on some of his construction sites. He barks out instructions about how best to install a concrete retaining wall and how to smooth relations with the property owner on the other side. It is a remarkable demonstration of how Buckeridge retains intimate control across a group of companies with annual turnover approaching $2 billion and with 2,800 employees on the payroll.

Commercial building in Australia has slowed sharply, but the home building sector, where Buckeridge is busiest, has held up, thanks for now to government handouts (scheduled to be cut midyear) to first-time home buyers.

As well as a slowing property market, succession is an issue for Buckeridge if his self-prognosis is correct. Having spent the past 50 years creating a business that ranks as the biggest home builder on Australia’s west coast and is a major national supplier of bricks, concrete and other building materials, there are the obvious questions of what–and who–next?

Talk of a stock exchange listing as a step toward broadening the ownership and management base of BGC is flatly rejected, despite earlier plans for such a move advocated by BGC director and company secretary Andrew Teo. “He was keen on it. I’m not,” Buckeridge says, before falling back on an excuse he has used before for staying private: “I’d have to buy a suit and make a speech.”

Pressed for his plans, Buckeridge says BGC will remain a private business with his children running it. “Sam runs the manufacturing, Julian runs the building [division], and Andrew runs the computer section. It works out pretty well,” he says.

Buckeridge has waged a long battle with organized labor in Australia, culminating in his leading role in a bitter standoff between management and workers at the ports in 1998. It was the shutdown of government-run docks that triggered his plan to build his own, winning a mandate from the Western Australian government in 1999, only to suffer ten years of frustration after a change of government and strong political opposition to his private port.

The plan resurfaced late last year after the latest state election, and Buckeridge is determined not to lose more time. Yet business activity across BGC has slowed as Australia feels the global downturn, with a mine contracting business hardest hit in the collapse of demand for many minerals.

“Mining contracting has had quite a substantial kick in the backside,” he says. “I’ve got laid-up gear sitting all around the place. Fortunately it’s paid for, so it’s not the end of world. Also, if you don’t use it, it doesn’t wear out, so it can sit until business picks up again.”

Buckeridge says BGC’s revenue from contracting earthmoving and other services to mining companies has fallen by 40% from an annualized $1.05 billion to $630 million. Demand for building materials such as bricks and plasterboard has also declined but not as substantially, he says, without revealing precise sales numbers.

But this tough old bird has suffered economic cycles before. He’d just like to be able to enjoy one more turn.